This is a great skill-building toy right out of 100+ No-Sew Fabric Crafts for Kids by Mary Link. The colorful pieces of fruit are very appealing to preschoolers, and little fingers will gain fine motor skills by lacing the string through the holes.
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Maybe you’ve been intrigued by the idea of painting on fabric. Maybe you’ve even tried your hand at painting a quilt, a t-shirt, a pair of shoes, or a silk scarf. But you may not have heard of the incredibly handy helpers for fabric painting called acrylic mediums. Here’s an introduction to acrylic mediums and how you can use them to enhance your fabric painting.
We recommend two different types of acrylic mediums for anyone getting started with fabric painting: fabric medium and gel medium. Both are made of the same kind of acrylic polymers that go into acrylic paints, but without the pigments. Continue Reading…
Here at C&T we recycle everything—even our old FedEx Paks! When we can’t turn them inside-out and reuse them for a new package shipment, we send them back to DuPont to be recycled into new Tyvek bags. Check out DuPont’s Tyvek recycling program here.
Tyvek is amazing stuff! The plastic fibers used to create the material are fused, not woven, so it’s not only waterproof, but airtight too! When it came time to retire my old bike tarp, I turned to our recycled FedEx Pak stash at work and voila! My new tarp!
I had a blast arranging the printed FedEx logos into a pleasing pattern and sewing them together. Because the tarp lives outside, I sealed my seams with specially made Tyvek tape on both sides to make it extra weatherproof. So far it’s worked out great!
Anyone have any fun Tyvek projects they’re working on? I can’t wait to see ‘em!
I just love the quilts in upcoming title, Tile Quilt Revival. From the second I saw one of them being shot in the photo studio, I was in love. Smitten. I don’t know what it is exactly. The cover quilt just makes me happy.
As the book designer, I spent a lot of time just staring at my monitor in awe of how authors Carol Gilham Jones and Bobbi Finley so effortlessly put fabrics together. Colors and prints that one might not consider right for each other are sewn together in such a thoughtful yet casual way.
I also love the way these quilts feel so intimate. Maybe it’s the fussy-cutting that lets you see the maker’s hand, or some of the romantic color and fabric combinations. Maybe it’s the history of this rediscovered quilt form or the stories that the gallery quilts tell. Whatever it is, these quilts feel so authentic and meaningful and I feel like I NEED to have one….Carol? Bobbi? hint hint. No, I’m just kidding (not really). Continue Reading…
Exciting news! This year YLI, Corp. and I have teamed up to bring you a new product, my Signature Series of Silk Ribbon Collections. They were just introduced at Quilt Market and Quilt Festival in Houston.
There are five attractively boxed sets: Iced Sherbets, Holiday Celebration, Natural Neutrals, Jewel Box and Kokopelli Pow Wow. Each box contains ten assorted spools of ribbon, for a total of twenty-five yards, all coordinated to the theme. There is an equal amount of 4mm and 7mm widths, a perfect amount for an above average sized project.
Kokopelli Pow Wow
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Congratulations to Annelise, Carole Johnson, and Bev C who are the three lucky winners of Kim Schaefer’s Little Quilt Company Giveaway! All three of these winning members of our blog community will receive six pattens from Little Quilt Company, Kim Schaefer’s online store. As Bev C always says, Happy Days!
Thank you to everyone who left a comment here and on Facebook. And stay tuned for the next Weekly Giveaway on the C&T Publishing blog which will post tomorrow.
Collecting fabrics that you love for future quilts may be the most fun part of the quilting process. Categorizing and organizing your fabric pieces by color is an easy way to arrange them so that you can develop a particular color palette for your next quilt.
Fabrics stored by color. Photo from "M'Liss Rae Hawley's Scrappy Quilts"
In Patchwork Quilts Made Easy – Revised, 2nd Edition, Jean Wells has this tip for quilters:
If you really love a fabric, and think that it may be eventually used in a border, then buy 3 yards of it. If you aren’t quite sure where you will use it, buy a smaller amount, about 3/4 yard.
Buying fat quarters, pieces that have been cut approximately 18’’ x 22’’ instead of the usual 9’’ by 42’’ quarter yard piece, are a great way to expand your stash.
Happy Quilting,
The Tech Editors
This article is part of the Quilting Tips from the Tech Editors tutorial series. Recent tutorials include:
